17/02/2019

In a reflective mood today, been thinking back over last year and the way it panned out, both musically and personally.

I won’t bore you with the personal details, suffice it to say that the menagerie increased from one dog (Progdog) to one dog and two cats, Coco (left) and Cyd (right), or it could be the other way round, who knows! Sadly my dear Ma-in-Law was diagnosed with that horrible disease, Alzheimer’s! As you can appreciate it was a year of change as I have now become a carer!

Musically it wasn’t half bad! Got to see some cracking gigs including Steven Wilson, Marillion and Camel and there were some great albums released! If you want to see what floated my boat last year then go to my Top 20 of 2018.

“Enough of living in the past, what about this year?” I hear you ask!

Well, even though it is only February, this year is shaping up nicely thank you. There have been some excellent releases from Evi Vine, The Emerald Dawn, Coma Rossi and a lovely little folk album by a Welsh lassie called Siobhan McCrudden. Fear not gentle folk, I will be reviewing all of these soon!

Then there was At the Edge of Light by the very prolific Steve Hackett. I won’t say too much about this album for fear of upsetting the faithful (in which I count myself incidentally) but I was neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed, let’s just say I was whelmed!

Anyway, on to the future! (it’s like being on Doctor Who on here) Yesterday I was summoned to Progmeister Towers by The Progmeister himself, my good buddy Steve Petch! He wanted me to hear an album that has been a long time in the making but is due to surface in the coming month or two. We settled down with an Americano and he played it! To say I was blown away is an understatement! It is actually stunning and has gone straight to the top of my Top 20 for 2019 and will take some shaking off!

I’m being a tease here because we are not allowed to say anything yet as it is strictly hush hush! Rest assured as soon as the embargo is lifted you will be the first to know!

Enough for now, future posts won’t be as long but we needed a catch up.